Tourism and Economic Development Go Hand in Hand

Tourism and economic development are good partners by the very definition of economic development we use–a new activity that generates income from outside sources for your community.

To have at least a partial connection between tourism and economic development, you’ll need:

• At least one tourist attraction, which we define as something someone outside your community would want to see or do.

• Support retail services, including at least one restaurant that’s not a smoky local bar, or otherwise so local that an outsider will feel uncomfortable there. In a very small town, a gas station with an ATM machine and a place to buy an anti-acid and a fountain soda is essential.

• Clear wayfinding mechanisms, which might vary from a gaudy but effective billboard on the highway to wonderful graphics and discreet signage within your city or town. Wayfinding also could be a tulip path, public art, or graphic painted on the street, you know.

• Parking and restroom availability and wayfinding to them. Tourism and economic development organizations need to provide them.

• A sense of hospitality and knowledge of tourist attractions in the city/town, especially among individuals most likely to come in contact with tourists.

• Safety enhancements if there is any sense that the tourist attraction might be in an unsafe neighborhood. Activity is the best safety enhancement, but visible law enforcement, escorts from cars, or private security greeters could be necessary in the toughest of circumstances.

You cannot take short-cuts on any one of the above. If the person that answers the phone at the inn says there’s no maze in town, but there is, you just struck out. This happened to a friend.

You’d be surprised that many a thriving antique store-boutique kind of street reaches a plateau because people get disgusted that the parking feels a little isolated, or the public bathrooms are out or order or non-existent. Again tourism and economic development organizations need to divide the work of making sure everything stays clean and active.

It’s alarming but true that just because you have a tourist attraction, not everyone will want to see it. Is the price right? The hours? The attitude? Is it well interpreted? Interpretation means that there is a method of explaining a natural or historic tourist attraction, a factory, and so forth. Even the most spectacular view in the world can become a larger tourist attraction if you begin to tell visitors in an engaging way, through audio or guided tours, signage, brochures, or artwork, more about the geology, botany, chemistry, and history behind what visitors see.

Can the people working there, whether volunteers or paid, accurately gauge whether people want to talk or be silent, whether they want to spend a lot of time or a little, and whether they want to know more or just see the basics.

Reprinted with permission from http://www.useful-community-development.org/